25 people caught stealing relief goods at Villamor
MANILA - Soldiers arrested 25 people who posed as evacuees and relief workers to steal relief goods at the Philippine Air Force headquarters in Pasay City.
PAF spokesman Col. Miguel Ernesto Okol said the 25 were arrested in separate operations from Nov. 16 up to last Saturday. He said the suspects posed as survivors and evacuees but were not in the manifest of evacuees from Tacloban.
"They are from nearby...They are not in the manifest and they admitted stealing," he said.
Other suspects posed as volunteers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, he said.
Six bogus volunteers were caught bringing 15 bags of relief goods out of Villamor last Saturday. The suspects were allegedly riding a vehicle with a government-issued license plate.
"They couldn't explain the 15 bags of (relief goods) in their possession," the PAF spokesman said.
The suspects were turned over to the Pasay City police and are now facing charges of qualified theft.
"These are people taking advantage of the situation to steal (relief goods)," Okol said.
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